


Burning Like A Meteor That Never Hits The Ground

by brokenhighways



Series: Happy Endings [5]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-02-10
Packaged: 2018-01-11 21:59:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenhighways/pseuds/brokenhighways
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fight breaks out at the wedding and Jared and Jensen's tentative reunion is left hanging by a thread.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning Like A Meteor That Never Hits The Ground

**Burning Like A Meteor That Never Hits The Ground**  

~

**i.**

When Jensen was seven, he and his mom used to go past a bakery that quite clearly sold the world's best chocolate cake. It looked good, so it probably smelt and tasted good too. No matter how much he begged her, his mom always refused to buy him a slice. Until one day, when they took a detour after leaving the post office, and entered the bakery. He’d devoured it the slice hungrily without even pausing to wonder just why it was that his mother had finally relented. He found out later that it was her way of buttering him up so he’d (at least pretend to) be okay with the fact that his Dad wanted to uproot them for work. After that the cake tasted flat in his mouth and he was left with a hollow pit in the centre of his stomach.

In this case, Jared is the chocolate cake.

Jensen’s not sure what propelled him out of seat and after Jared but right now he’s wishing that he hadn’t followed him. Sure, they’d shared that ‘moment’ right after Jared turned around and caught him standing there. After that things became a little awkward. They’d traded a few glances during the ceremony itself, as it hit a little too close to home and then by some sort of mutual, silent agreement they’d been avoiding each other since. Well, Jared is avoiding _him_ – Jensen is avoiding _everybody_. He’s too busy playing everything over in his mind to make idle chitchat while he stuffs mini-sausage rolls into his mouth. He should be happy, right? Jared hates this ‘pretending to be friends’ thing as much as he does. Jared thinks that _Jensen_ is the right man for him.

That should make him happy; and it does, for a little while, before his brain takes over. What if he hadn’t walked in, would Jared have said anything or would he have kept up with the charade? How long has Jared felt like that? Since the day he called off their wedding, or since he saw Justin standing there with Jensen at the airport. It’s not a thought that Jensen wants to entertain, but Jared’s always had some sort of weird jealous streak when it comes to Justin. He’s always a little cold and distant whenever Justin is around despite Jensen’s assurances that, he and Justin had been history for a _long_ time.

“God, this music sucks.” Chad emerges out of nowhere and drags a chair over towards Jensen’s table even though there’s an empty seat right next to him. He sits down on the chair backwards and peers at Jensen closely.

“You and Jared have matching looks of miserable on your faces these days, and I’ve already pissed in Jared’s Cheerios’ enough this week, so here I am to piss in yours,” Chad says.

“You’re right,” Jensen says, hoping to avoid the subject of Jared completely. “The music _does_ suck. This song sounds like what New Kids On The Block would sound like if they still made music.”

Chad coughs slightly. “They still make music, buddy. But no changing the subject! What happened when Jared went to get Sandy?” Jensen sighs. He really doesn’t want to talk about this, but at the same time, he _does_ need someone to tell him that he’s being stupid. Jared’s extended an olive branch and he’s dangling on the end, not quite willing to accept it – even though he _really_ wants to.

“He…said some stuff. About us.”

“That’s insightful,” Chad retorts. Jensen glares at him. Chad holds his hands up in mock surrender. “Alright, alright, I’ll bite. What did he say?”

“He said that he’s stuck pretending to be friends with me, because he let his insecurities get the better of me because I’m the only guy for him blah, blah, blah, basically he regrets calling off the wedding,” Jensen says hastily. “And I don’t know how to feel about that.”

“You’ve spent five months pining over Jared like a lovesick puppy,” Chad says. “What do you mean you don’t know how to feel?” Danneel walks by the table then with a glass of champagne in her hand. She hears what Chad is saying and starts to back away slowly. She’s absolved herself of all matters Jared and Jensen because she’s quote not exactly in a position to give anyone relationship advice unquote. Considering the fact that the last guy she dated is actually married with three kids, Jensen is inclined to agree. Still, he kind of wishes that she would rescue him from Chad, who’s staring at him with barely concealed anger in his eyes.

“Why the hell are you pissed at _me_?” Jensen asks.

“I’ve already given Jared a piece of my mind,” Chad says. “I am pissed at both of you. Mostly Jared, but still. Both of you. And—wait, is that _Justin Hartley_? It is! Who the hell invited that scumbag?” _Harsh_ , Jensen thinks, but he doesn’t say anything. He knows better than to defend Justin in front of Chad.

“I think he’s a friend of Brandon’s brother or something like that,” Jensen says. “I remember him telling me when Jared came to pick us up from the airport.”

Chad gapes. “You made Jared drive him to the hotel?”

“I didn’t _make_ him do anything, I just offered Justin a ride and he accepted. Jared just happened to be driving. Anyway, it’s kind of funny that Jared suddenly decides that he regrets what happened _after_ Justin shows up, right? Or am I being stupid?”

“You’re being stupid.” Chad doesn’t miss a beat and Jensen guesses that he kind of set himself up for that one. There’s something in Chad’s tone that sends off warning bells and Jensen starts to sense that there’s something he’s out of the loop on. “If anyone’s jealous of anybody, it’s Justin. I’m surprised that you haven’t punched him in the face yet.”

“Why would I do that?” Jensen asks, because really, is he the only one who doesn’t see what’s so bad about Justin?

“I’m sure you know about how he treated Jared when they first met, and all of the shit he says behind your back when you’re not around,” Chad says. He turns to Jensen briefly and looks away. He does a double take when he catches the confused look on Jensen’s face. “Oh God, you don’t know? Jared is going to kill me.” Chad stands, but gets caught in the chair making it very easy for Jensen to yank him back down.

“Start talking,” he growls through gritted teeth. “Now.” Chad yanks his arm away with a huff.

“Fine. It was the night that you and Jared met – we all know the story, he was drunk and outside of your dorm building and you took him in and looked after him. But he was only there because Justin threw him out of his room like twenty minutes before you got there.” Chad looks like he’d rather shit a brick than tell this story and Jensen doesn’t blame him. How the hell has he never known about this?

“Why did he throw Jared out?” he asks. He knows that Justin met Jared before he did (and he had guessed the circumstances under which they’d met quite easily) but he wasn’t aware that they’d gotten into some kind of argument.

“Because Jared said he didn’t want to have sex with him, so your buddy Justin tossed a drunk, eighteen year old kid out on his ass,” Chad says. “What a great guy. And well it didn’t end there. When you guys got together Justin was all smiles when _you_ were around but he berated and belittled Jared whenever he got the chance. I only know about this because I overhead one time and made Jared tell me everything.”

“Why didn’t he tell me?” Jensen asks. “Did he think that I wouldn’t believe him?”

Chad raises an eyebrow. “Would you have believed him? It took him almost a year to get you to agree to go out with him; at that point he wasn’t willing to risk losing you.”

“How do you know that?” Jensen asks. He knows that Jared and Chad are best friends, but it hurts that Chad knows all of these things about Jared that Jensen doesn’t. It hurts that he was lied to even if it was to protect him.

“I told him to break up with you,” Chad admits. “I didn’t know you back then, and I always thought that Jared was way too good for you. You can’t change a slut overnight, might have been my exact words.”

“Aw, Chad, how sweet of you to say so,” Jensen says. “But yeah, that’s actually pretty accurate. Not that I slept around on Jared or anything – I would never have done that.”

“That’s not what Justin was telling Jared.” Jensen can tell that Chad is trying to bait him into squaring up to Jensen, because none of this has any real bearing on what’s happening with Jared now. Sure, hearing that Jared put up with a lot of shit from Justin for the sake of not losing Jensen makes his heart skip a little; both with happiness and sadness, because Justin is more fucked up than Jensen ever thought he was. He might not have been a witness to what Chad’s told him but he knows what Justin is capable of, knows about his mind games. He knows because that’s exactly how Justin lured him into his web in the first place.

It’s funny how Jensen has this revelation every time he comes across Justin and yet, there’s always a part of him that chooses to ignore it at first. The truth really is a sneaky bitch.

“Do you think that Justin’s had time to say anything to Jared?” Jensen asks, while trying his best to push down his rising anger.

“Yeah, but I think in this case, it might be a good thing,” Chad says. At Jensen’s incredulous glance, Chad attempts to explain his words. “You said that you didn’t know how to feel, man. And it’s not my place to tell you, but I will anyway because all of this shit is not good for my health, seriously. Jared getting jealous over your douchebag ex and realising how badly he fucked up doesn’t mean that he loves you any less, or that he said what he said because of Justin fucking Hartley. It means that he fucked up, and he knows that. What you choose to do with that information is up to you.” Jensen’s about to respond when a shadow looms over them, he looks up to see that Justin is standing in front of them, cocky grin plastered all over his face.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Chad Michael Murray,” Justin says smugly. “Nice job with the service by the way. I guess that someone finally sat you down and taught you how to read.” Jensen feels both of his eyebrows shoot up. What is this, fifth grade?

“Fuck you too, Hartley,” Chad shoots back. He sounds breezy and nonplussed but Jensen knows Chad well enough to hear the underlying anger in his tone.

“Play nice, guys,” Jensen says in an attempt to peacemaker. Chad mutters something under his breath but he doesn’t argue. Justin sits next to Jensen and drains his glass of champagne. There’s an awkward silence, but Justin soon decides to rid them of it.

“That was a nice wedding wasn’t it?” he says. “I was surprised that Jared was invited - they must have been pretty confident that he wouldn’t ruin another wedding.” Justin laughs as if he’s just delivered a witty punch-line and Jensen just finds himself staring at him and thinking _this man is a stranger_.

“Speaking of Jared,” Justin continues, when he realises that Chad and Jensen aren’t going to respond. “He came by yesterday, said he wanted to talk to you, but I covered for you.” Jensen freezes. Jared wanted to talk to him yesterday? What if he’d wanted to say what he’d said to Sandy to Jensen yesterday? Fuck, why is Justin just telling him about this _now_?

“What did you say to him?” Jensen asks.

“I…nothing,” Justin lies. “Just that you were in the shower.”

“Okay, fine, what did he say to you?”

“Just some bullshit about you not sleeping with me, and I admit, I might have made it sound like we were possibly about to do _something_ but that was just to rile Jared up.” Justin is squirming nervously now as Jensen glares at him angrily. Chad looks amused, but still a little pissed off himself. “Come on, Jensen, you know that I’ve got your back.”

“You’re a liar, Justin. I know about you and Jared and---“

“Oh, did _he_ tell you about it? I’m surprised, really, I still feel embarrassed for him. He was all over me, but I just wasn’t interested. So naturally, he moved onto my best friend.”

“Oh my god,” Chad says suddenly, finger suddenly floating in the vicinity of Justin’s face “You’re a fucking liar, you know that? That wasn’t how it happened at all. Why don’t you just give it up, man? Jensen knows the truth. The cat’s out of the fucking bag.”

“It’s not my fault that Jared’s such a fucking slut, Murray,” Justin says. Jensen sees red. He’s up and hauling Justin by the collar of his shirt before he realises it, and he’s swinging his fist into Justin’s face, revelling in the sound of the connection and Justin’s grunt of pain. He hears a sudden bustle of noise around them but the only thing he’s focused on is making sure Justin gets the message.

“Don’t talk about him that way!” he practically screams. He feels someone holding him back, Chad perhaps, but he shrugs them off as Justin regains his balance.

“You’re never going to be over him, are you?” Justin asks sadly. Gone is the bravado, the smug look, he just looks lost and beaten down. Jensen can’t bring himself to feel sorry for him. “I always thought that one day…you and I…”

“You and I would what? End up together and ride along into the sunset? Bullshit. Count yourself lucky that we’re surrounded by a bunch of people,” Jensen says. “Because I am not even close to being done with you. I know about all of the shit that you said to Jared.”

Justin scoffs and nods towards Chad, “And it was _this_ joker who told you and not Jared. How can you trust him when he’s keeping important things away from you?”

“You manipulated him,” Jensen says. “The same way you did with me. So long as he thought that me and you were the best of friends, he wouldn’t have said a damn thing and you could get away with saying whatever the hell you wanted.”

“Maybe I did,” Justin replies. “But I saved you, Jensen. I saved you from a marriage that would have just fallen apart in a year or two; he doesn’t know what he wants. And hell, he almost ran away with someone else. Doesn’t that tell you something?” Jensen feels his blood run cold. There’s no way that Justin would know about that. Jensen didn’t tell him, and he doubts that Jared or the others did and they’re the _only_ ones that know. There’s only one way that Justin could know.

Chad takes you a step forward. “Tell me that you didn’t send in one of your buddies to talk Jared out of the wedding?” He sounds angrier than Jensen’s ever heard him and Justin shrinks backward slightly.

“He was in town and he happened to stumble across Jared,” Justin says with a shrug. He grins. “What happened afterward is nothing to do with me.” Jensen knows that there’s no way that some random person could ever have that much sway over Jared. Jared’s always been headstrong, always known what he wanted. He knows that Justin’s plan didn’t really work, knows that Jared was probably already having doubts. So, it’s not Jared’s character and motivations that has Jensen worked up in a frenzy, it’s Justin’s. This is someone that he’s called his _best friend_ ; someone that he might have been in love with, once upon a time, someone who messed with the most important person in Jensen’s life.

Justin might think that he’s in love with Jensen, but really he’s just in love with himself.

And right now Jensen wants to _kill_ him.

~

**ii**

Jared shows up halfway through Jensen’s second attack on Justin and he drags Jensen away and shoves him across the room, until they’re away from the crowd. Jensen is panting slightly as he cradles his hand, but Jared can’t help snapping at him.

“What the _hell_ are you doing? This is Sandy’s wedding.” Chad is hovering by them, guilt plastered all over his face. Jared can tell that he at least had something to do with Justin and Jensen’s fight, but that doesn’t automatically absolve Jensen of any blame.

“Look, don’t be mad at Jensen,” Chad says. “I practically egged him on. And I sort of told him about the whole story about the night that you two met. Sorry.”

“Thanks Chad, much appreciated,” Jared snaps. Chad shrugs and walks off, because he’s an asshole who doesn’t care about anybody.

Jensen seems to have calmed down by the time Jared turns back to him. He’s leaning against the wall with a passive look on his face.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “That was a shitty thing to do.”

“It’s not me you should be apologizing to.”

“Right well, if that’s all, I’m going to head back up to my room.” He moves to leave the room and Jared finds himself following after him. He tells himself it’s just in case Justin jumps out of a dark shadow (or something) and tries to reignite the fight, but really he knows that it’s the guilt that propels him forward. Jensen’s been tense and on edge since he overheard what was said to Sandy, and that’s no one’s fault but Jared’s.

Jensen eyes him curiously when he steps into the elevator after him. He doesn’t look angry or annoyed so Jared just stands and doesn’t offer up any words. Jensen’s still angry, which means that he’s going to have something to say in about five—

“You know what I don’t get?” –seconds. “I don’t understand why you wouldn’t tell me that you and Justin had a _thing_ on the night that we met.” Jared doesn’t answer, because Jensen’s not done yet.

“And I had to find out about it from Chad, of all people. Not only that, Justin talks trash about you to your face when I’m not around and you didn’t tell me about that either. What else haven’t you told me?”

Still not done.

“I never should have come to this stupid wedding,” Jensen says with a dismissive shake of his head. “Do it together, my ass. Where the hell have you been all night?” Jared only then realises that he hadn’t told Jensen that he’d popped out for about an hour or so; Sandy’s aunt had an early flight to catch and he’d run her to the airport.

Jensen scoffs when Jared tells him that, as the elevator doors ping open. He steps out of it and starts walking briskly towards his hotel room. “Right. She needed a lift and _you_ were the only one who could take her. Awesome. Goodbye.” He slams the door in Jared’s face.

Jared wonders if that’s going to be a recurring theme this weekend.

~

Jared finds Justin sitting on the curb a few feet away from the hotel. His tie is askew and his top shirt buttons are missing; his blond hair is in disarray and there’s dried blood on his face and a red patch around his left eye.

“So that happened,” Jared says after he sits down next to Justin. “Jensen’s not talking to me.” He doesn’t know why he’s out there and not pounding on Jensen’s door, begging him to listen.

It’s probably because there’s no point talking to Jensen when he is that angry.

“Don’t act all surprised,” Justin says snidely. “I know that you and your little friend, Murray set that whole thing up. You conspired to turn Jensen against me.”

“I had nothing to do with it,” Jared says. “I wouldn’t waste a single second of my time plotting to trip you up, let alone turn Jensen against you. Chad just wanted someone to punch you in face, and you made it too easy for him.”

“Whatever, Jared. You won. He’s chosen you. Again.” Justin laughs humorlessly. “Even after Tom. You know Tom told me everything you said and I was going to use that this weekend, I thought that me and Jensen wo---“

“Not to be rude or anything, but I really don’t want to hear this,” Jared interrupts. “And just so you know, your buddy Tom is going to be the guy we think about in the upcoming years, we’re going to be _thanking_ him for saving our relationship. So, I guess that I should _thank_ you for sending him my way.”

Justin turns to stare at him. “That’s ridiculous. You and Jensen are never going to be the same again; you’re never going to have what you had before.”

Jared nods in agreement. “You’re right, we won’t be the same, we’ll be _better_ , a thousand times stronger than we were before we broke up. And it’s all down to you, Justin. Imagine that.”

Justin looks away, shoulders drooping with dejection. Jared thinks about leaving it like that, thinks about being the better person. He thinks about it and dismisses that idea. After years of Justin’s rudeness, he’s earned the right to kick him when he’s down.

“You wanna know why I never told Jensen about all the things you used to say to me? Because I felt sorry for you, you loved him and you threw it all away, you let Jensen get away. And I didn’t think that you deserved to lose him entirely, because you were his best friend, and I didn’t want to force Jensen to choose, ‘cause if I’d told him, he would have dropped you in two seconds flat because he was in love with _me_. But you still managed to fuck it all up by yourself, and here you are…ten years later, sitting alone on the curb.” Jared stands and brushes his hands down the back of his pants. He turns around and feels an invisible wave crash over him when he sees Jensen standing there. It’s cold and startling and Jared can’t help feeling like he’s screwed up once again. He can’t help wondering if Jensen really would pick _him_ over Justin.

“Hi, uh, can you give me and Justin a couple of minutes to talk,” Jensen says. He seems to have calmed down and Jared has to push down the hope in his chest. He doesn’t know when things became so damn complicated. “I’ll meet you back inside.” Jared nods and walks back to the hotel.

He turns at the door and stares at Justin and Jensen until his vision goes blurry. There’s a flurry of noise behind him and suddenly Katie is there, saying something about how she’s been looking for him. Jared doesn’t really listen to her. He’s too busy looking through the glass, wishing so hard that he could hear what they were talking about.

“Jared, come on.” Katie is persistent and somehow she manages to drag him over to the waiting area at the front of the hotel. He sits there miserably as Katie calls Aldis to tell him that she’s ‘ _found Jared_ ’. It only occurs to him then that all of his friends saw what happened as well. God, Sandy is probably never going to speak to him again. Though, knowing Sandy, she’ll probably be happy that there was drama at her wedding. She’s always been weird like that.

“What are those two talking about?” Katie asks him. “You had to drag Jensen off him an hour ago, gosh, is it even safe to leave them on their own? Should we go back out there?”

Jared shakes his head. “Nah, I…I don’t think that they’ll get into a physical fight. Unless Chad’s there antagonizing them. Where is he, by the way? I’m going to _kill_ him.” Katie coughs and shifts uncomfortably. Jared sighs. Of course _she_ would have something to do with this.

“Look, that wasn’t Chad’s fault. Not entirely. It was more of a group effort,” Katie says. “We saw how miserable you were at breakfast and then Jensen showed up with Justin and you looked ten times worse and we had to do _something_ before Justin found a way to worm back into our lives the way he seems to whenever we see him.”

“So your plan was to get Jensen to beat him up – in the middle of Sandy’s wedding reception?” They might have meant well, but Jared doesn’t like the fact that she’s using him as an excuse for what Chad did.

“No – it was never supposed to come to that,” Katie protests. “Chad was supposed to just whisper a few things into Jensen’s ear. Justin wasn’t supposed to go over to them.”

“Jensen overheard me telling Sandy that I hated pretending to be friends with him, that I basically regretted calling our wedding off,” Jared says. “Three hours later he finds out that his best friend has been a jerk to me over the years and that said best friend was so in love with him that he actually sent someone to talk me out of our wedding – and it worked, didn’t it? It worked. I played right into his hands.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Katie says fiercely. “You and I both know that some stranger didn’t talk you out of getting married. Since when have you ever let anyone sway your mind? Hell, we’ve all been trying to shove you and Jensen back together for months and you’ve resisted our meddling because you weren’t ready. It’s all _you_ , Jared, not Justin Hartley.” She makes a big show of patting his shoulders and peering at them closely.

“Nope,” she continues, “I don’t see any strings – you’re nobody’s puppet, Jared, and who knows if Justin was even telling the truth. He’s a _liar_. You know that, I know that and—“

“Jensen also knows that.” Jensen appears beside them suddenly, and he’s on his own. Jared bites down on his bottom lip to stop himself from saying anything stupid or asking where Justin is. Jensen seems to be reading his mind because the next thing he says is,

“I called Justin a cab. He’s going to take an earlier flight out.” Jared’s phone buzzes in his pocket as Katie says something to Jensen and he extracts it to see that he has a message from Sandy wanting to know if he’s okay. He sends her a reply saying that she should enjoy the rest of her wedding and that they’ll talk later. He doesn’t need to screw up her day any more than he has already.

~

By some miracle, they manage to go back to the wedding reception and sit around, watching as people have a good time. Jared’s not sure if it’s worth it when Jensen, Chad, Danneel, Katie and Aldis probably look as miserable as he feels. He’s no longer angry about them trying to meddle in his and Jensen’s business anymore because it’s nothing that he hasn’t done before, and they really did mean well. Instead he feels even more like shit than he has since he told Jensen that he didn’t want to marry him.

“Maybe we should just go,” he suggests, and it’s funny how quickly they nod in agreement and jump out of their seats. Before he can get out of his, everyone’s gone.

Except for Jensen.

“We need to talk,” he says, his tone grave and serious in a way that makes Jared’s heart pound against his chest wildly. Jared swallows hard, nodding when Jensen keeps on looking at him expectantly.

He has no idea how he’s supposed to fix this mess without destroying everything they have in the process.

**TBC**

**Author's Note:**

> *ducks flying objects* -- longish part to make up for the fact that it's a few days late, and for what I've done to these poor boys. <3 Title is from BSB.


End file.
